Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

An ongoing project by students in the College of Engineering's Humanitarian and Social Entrepreneurship program is helping Africans move beyond subsistence farming by developing affordable, inexpensive greenhouses.

When people think about the sources of greenhouse gas emissions, they think of oil refineries, smokestacks, and trucks spewing out thick black smoke. They don't usually think of cows.

But recently, the idea that cattle could be a source of greenhouse gas has been attracting attention. It turns out that the belches of cows, sheep, and other livestock animals contain substantial amounts of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas that has about 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

Antarctica: A windswept wasteland at the edge of the world, enveloped by snow and ice, showered by ultraviolet rays that pour through a growing hole in the ozone, home of penguins, base to McMurdo Research Station and its family of scientists. About 1,000 women and men live at McMurdo Research Station during the Antarctic summer. Because shipping things in and out of Antarctica is so expensive, they closely monitor their trash: what can be recycled and what cannot, and how to reduce the total amount. McMurdo residents recycle 61 percent of their solid waste.